How To Tie The Topwater Bugger Fly

The topwater Bugger is about as unconventional as it gets when it comes to fly fishing. That aside it is a great pattern to have in your box if you target bass. It uses a piece of sheet foam to create something close to a popper or gurgler head and work as a topwater lure to draw bass out of cover or off of beds. This fly is essential tied like a normal bugger with some foam at the front. This is a great video on tying a standard bugger: Video on standard wooly bugger
Materials needed:
 •Streamer hook of your choice.
 •Thread of your color choice.
 •Marabou.
 •Dubbing of your choice(preferably a synthetic dub such as ice dub)
 •Cape or saddle hackle.
 •2 or 3 mm sheet foam.
 •Ultra thin wire.



Step 1: Tie in your marabou towards the back of your hook shank.
Step 2: Tie in ultra thin wire.
Step 3: Apply dubbing on most of the hook and tie in your hackle feather leaving plenty of room for the foam.
Step 4: Wrap the hackle and capture it with the wire exactly how you would for a standard bugger. This step does not have to be perfect it just helps build profile on the fly.
Step 4: Cut out a teardrop shaped piece of sheet foam.

Step 5: Tie in the foam to create the head and cover the bare thread with a dubbing loop.

I recommend fishing this fly over heavy cover or near weeds during spring and summer time.

If you liked this post please consider checking out some of my other posts.

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